The latest Boeing and aerospace news, including updates about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, 747-8 and 737, Airbus A380 and A350, the anticipated Boeing 797 and Boeing jobs and layoffs

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..

A380 break-even point raised

Co-CEO’s Tom Enders, right, and Louis Gallois, standing, prepare for the start of the annual shareholders meeting of EADS, the parent of Airbus, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, May 4, 2007. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Airbus said Friday it has once again raised the break-even point for the troubled A380.

In 2005, Airbus was saying that it would need to sell only 270 of the planes to break even. Last year, that jumped to 420 planes as a result of costly wiring problems that delayed delivery of the A380 by up to two years.

Airbus Chief Executive Louis Gallois said Friday at the annual shareholder meeting of parent company European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. that the break-even point for the A380 has been raised, but he did not disclose to new figure.

“Clearly because of the difficulties of the A380, the break-even point has increased,” Gallois said. EADS for now isn’t giving specific targets on the number of A380s it needs to sell to break even on the project, he said.

Today’s annual meeting for EADS comes at a crucial time for the company, which is trying to nurse its Airbus division back to health after a series of missteps building and designing new models that dragged the plane maker to a €572 million ($777.6 million) loss last year and slashed the parent company’s profit.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..